This bill amends existing New Mexico tax law to allow the disclosure of taxpayer return information to the staff of the Legislative Finance Committee. The new provisions specify that department employees may reveal return information for the purpose of evaluating programs with fiscal impacts on the state or its political subdivisions. A memorandum of understanding will be established between the department and the Legislative Finance Committee to ensure confidentiality and security protocols regarding the return information. The bill also mandates that any shared information must be aggregated to protect individual taxpayer identities and that confidential information must be destroyed within one year of receipt.

Additionally, the bill updates the confidentiality provisions by replacing references to previous sections of the law with a new section, 7-1-8.12 NMSA 1978, which outlines the specific conditions under which taxpayer information can be shared. It emphasizes that the staff of the Legislative Finance Committee is prohibited from using the information for any purpose other than program evaluation and must ensure that any shared data is not personally identifiable. The effective date for these changes is set for July 1, 2025.

Statutes affected:
introduced version: 7-1-4.2, 7-1-21